three kings day

On the 6th of January we celebrate the Three Kings Day here in Switzerland. It marks the end of the Christmas season and celebrates the visit of the Wise men to the Baby Jesus. To honor this arrival, a Three Kings Cake is made and if you visit any bakeries or supermarkets right now in Switzerland, you will see Three King Cakes for sale. The Three Kings Cake is a sweet bread, similar to a Challah or braided bread and shaped like a flower. In addition, a King is hidden in one of the pieces and whoever gets the piece with the King inside is crowned King for this day.

Preparation:

500 g flour

3 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

30 g fresh yeast

3 dl milk

75 g butter

1 egg yolk

1 almond

1 dl milk

sliced almonds and coarse sugar for decoration

Warm the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm and dissolve gently the yeast in the milk.

Melt the butter in another saucepan.

Combine the flour, the sugar and the salt and form a little hollow in the middle.

Pour the yeast – milk mixture and the melted butter in the hollow and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic for about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a bowl and coat the bowl with a wet towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume for about 90 minutes.

Knead the dough once more and let it rise for another 90 minutes.

When the dough has doubled the volume once more, knead the dough. Then cut the dough into 4 pieces.

Form a roll of one of the pieces, this will be the middle roll.

Cut the three restless pieces in half once more and form 6 small rolls, placing the almond into one of the rolls.

Place the big roll onto the baking sheet, then place the six smaller rolls around the larger one and let it rise for another 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200° C

Brush each of the rolls with the egg yolk – milk – mixture and sprinkle with the coarse sugar and sliced almonds.

Beautiful!!! On Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, the dough is a bit different (adding raisins) and the Challah is braided into a special crown shape, (the God’s crown….!) Certain traditions are always beautiful…